On 14 February 2023, EBA published the Final Draft on the new RTS on homogeneity of STS securitisations. TSI had participated in the consultation on the Draft RTS in autumn 2022 (see news from 2 November 2023). The biggest criticisms on the EBA's draft were the proposed differentiation in the homogeneity factor "type of obligor" for corporate loans at an annual turnover of EUR 500 million and the lack of a grandfathering rule for synthetic transactions.
EBA takes up criticism from the market in the final draft
These criticisms, which were unanimously voiced by TSI as well as other industry associations and market participants, have now been taken up by the EBA in the final draft. The most important changes compared to the consultation are listed below:
- The turnover limit of EUR 500 million introduced in the Draft RTS was removed. Thus, the regulation for the asset class "credit facilities, including loans and leases, provided to any type of enterprise or corporation" remains unchanged. The EBA also points out that no general SME definition is introduced and that originators should rely on the internal classification approved by the relevant supervisory authority.
- The grandfathering rule has been extended from non-ABCP and ABCP securitisations to on-balance sheet transactions. Therefore, the RTS does not apply for securitisations which already exist at the time the RTS enters into force.
Assessment of the Final Draft RTS on Homogeneity
With the RTS, the EBA creates a uniform legal basis for all types of transactions under the Securitisation Regulation. With the changes described above, the EBA responds to the main criticisms from the market, which is very welcome. A non-existent grandfathering rule for synthetic securitisation would have led to several running transactions losing their STS status. The turnover limit of EUR 500 million would have made the securitisation of corporate portfolios considerably more difficult.
Less pleasing is the fact that it is still not possible to securitise corporate loans from the SME and large corporates segments and from more than one jurisdiction, which is quite common for synthetic securitisations, in an STS-eligible manner, if there are no uniform, internal (rating) procedures for these loan segments.
Bottom line, the RTS only introduces a supplement to the homogeneity factor "type of obligor" for the asset classes "auto loans and leases" and "credit card receivables". In future, exposures of enterprises and individuals, for which originators apply the same credit risk assessment procedures, can be combined in a homogeneous pool. However, it is expected that this adjustment has only minor impacts in practice, since usually the homogeneity factor "jurisdiction" is applied for these asset classes.
Next steps
The final draft will now be submitted to the EU Commission for endorsement. It will then be scrutinised by the European Parliament and Council before being published in the Official Journal of the European Union (EU Journal). The RTS will enter into force 20 days after publication in the EU Journal.
